My First Week

I forgot the following items:
toothpaste
my cord from my camrea to my computer
my electrical adapter

This is rather unfortunate because I couldn't upload pictures. However I have temporarily solved the problem by making friends with the girls who live next door and borrowed a piece from them that allows me to get my pictures to my computer! Exciting I know.

This week was a lot of orientation for international students. I met kids from China, India, England, Texas, and Singapore. A few of Australia, but I think I will meet a lot more of them tomorrow in actual school. This is their second semester, so they just got back from break over the weekend.

I don't have any complaints about the continent. They drive on the wrong side of the road. Which doesn't seem like a big deal because Notre Dame made us sign a paper that says we will not drive during study abroad. However, when I cross the street I look both ways twice and am still surprised to see a car coming at me down the wrong side of the street. Also, I have been jogging and find myself playing chicken with other joggers as they are on the left side going one direction and I am on the right side going the opposite direction.

The food is good. Fresh fruit and ice cream every day. They have american cereal with australian names and some odd peanut butter looking stuff that is really some sort of yeast and is called vegimite. It sounds awful.

Other than the vegimite and driving on the wrong side of the road, based on the physical place, I'm still in the states.

The difference and the interesting part of the trip are the people. If you look through my pictures you will see a guy with some birds. He was so excited about those birds. I met a kid last night from a farm in southern West Australia who talked about his family growing Australian wild flowers and killing rabbits cause they eat the grass and the sheep cannot. Rabbits are not native to Australia. The English brought them so that they could hunt them. The guy from China was an only child and said he spent a lot of time by himself growing up.

A bug difference is that people from Perth travel. To leave the city of Perth you pretty much have to get on a plane. Perth has 1.4 million people and the state of Western Australia (which is 1/3 of the continent (I think) has 1.9 million people. The outback, which is Western Australia minus Perth is just a desert (with kangeroos). People get a lot of vacation from work and use it to go see things.

It is hard to not have close friends and family around. But the city is pretty cool and the people are very nice, so I think I will make some. Also, it makes me realize how much I love the friends and family I do have.

Things to look forward to this week: classes, getting a job, taking a circuit class at the gym, and getting to see more of King's Park!

I hope you have a fantastic week!

Brittney